though hope is frail, it's hard to kill
by thingyoulovemost
Summary: Emma Swan feels like she's just been through the emotional ringer, and her parents are there to hold her close and wipe away her tears.


**A/N: Well, tonight's episode hit me with a motherload o' feels so here, have some more.**

**Disclaimer: ************Not my characters, just my words! Credit to the brilliantly evil minds of Kitsis and Horowitz.**

Numb. Emma Swan is numb. She feels empty and somehow so heavy at the same time. She can't feel the splinters or the bruises and the scrapes, though she knows they must be there. The pain will come later, she knows. It always finds her. She's not sure how she makes it back to the apartment, but she does. She sees her parents and their alarmed faces as they rush towards her, and she thinks something must be wrong with her ears because everything sounds muffled. They're asking her what happened, she realizes as she registers their frantic expressions. Her reaction time must be off.

The next thing she knows, she's sitting on the steps wondering how in the world she's ever going to tell her son that his father, the father she kept from him that he's just begun to know, is gone. She _can't_. She must have said her thoughts out loud, because she feels her father kiss her head firmly and her eyes slip closed. Emma Swan doesn't do this, doesn't let anyone close enough to tell her it's going to be alright because it never is. But when her father tightens his grip on her shoulder and gives her that kiss, she lets her inhibitions fly out the window and lets him give her the comfort she craves. It's not okay and nothing is going to make this okay, but the strong arms that are wrapped around her ease the ache.

She knows the numbness is bound to wear off at some point, but for now, she basks in it. She doesn't know how long they sit there, father and daughter with her head on his shoulder, before he starts to get up. She makes a discontented noise and looks up at him through broken, helpless eyes containing tears that are threatening to fall at any moment, and Charming's heart breaks for his baby girl.

He grabs the hand that's outstretched towards him and clasps it as tightly as he can without hurting her as he says, "I'm just going to get supplies to remove those splinters. I'll be right back." He takes a look at the nasty bruise forming on her cheek and says with a frown, "On second thought, I'm grabbing you some ice, too."

Emma's still sitting on the steps with her head in her hands when she feels her mother sit down next to her. She feels Snow run her hands up and down her arms in that gesture of comfort she's come to know so well lately. She lifts her head to meet her mother's gaze, and the look of love and pain she sees there threaten to unleash the floodgates. Her face starts to crumple but before the tears can fall her father returns with the first aid kit. He kneels in front of her and pops open the box, pulling out the tweezers. Her face must show her disgust because he chuckles a little. He takes one of her hands in his gently and turns her palm over as Snow gasps at the sight of scrapes and wood chips marring her baby's skin. Charming lets out his breath in a whoosh before he strengthens his resolve, getting to work removing the splinters as gently as he can, one by one. Snow feels herself flinch each time Emma winces in pain, as her daughter's pain is her own. To Emma's credit, she doesn't once make a sound and Charming is reminded of how even as a minutes-old newborn in the midst of danger and chaos, she remained as quiet as a mouse. Once he's removed all the splinters from both of her hands, he pulls out the antiseptic.

"This is gonna sting pretty bad, okay? But I'll do it as fast as I can, I promise." he tells her, and she just nods resolutely. Always brave, he thinks. He spritzes it on her hands and she lets out a low hiss through a clenched jaw as he murmurs, "I'm sorry, baby," and dabs it with a rag. Snow squeezes her arm reassuringly. He gently wraps both her hands in bandages and says, "Now for that bruise," as he lifts the ice pack and readies it for her cheek. She winces once more as the stinging cold makes contact with her sore cheek, and she knows the numbness is fading fast now. She can feel her resolve not to cry slipping with every tender touch.

Snow cups the other side of Emma's cheek in her hand, and that does it, the final crack in her armor that brings it crashing down. Emma chokes out a sob, and before she can stop them the tears begin to fall without abandon. Charming leans forward as Emma crashes into his arms, catching her as she throws her arms around his neck and holds on for dear life. "It's not fair," she chokes out, and he runs his hand over the back of her head as he murmurs, "I know it's not, baby. It's not fair at all." He meets Snow's heartbroken gaze, tears in both their eyes over seeing their child in such pain with them helpless to stop it. He wishes more than anything that he could take this burden off her shoulders. She's suffered so much already; he can't bear to see her like this. Emma's body wracks with sobs as he holds her tight and says, "I've got you. I'm here, you're safe and I've got you." He waves Snow over and she joins them, hugging their daughter fiercely between them as if that act alone will take her pain away. If only it were that simple. Emma feels so small in his arms, and her sobs begin to slow as he rubs her back and Snow strokes her hair. Both his girls, the two women who hold his entire world in their hands. He'd hold his daughter forever if he could, but when her tears finally stop he forces himself to step back. She just seems so empty, broken and shell-shocked. He wipes the remnants of her tears away with his thumb, and he thinks the way she's looking up at him with those eyes of hers might be the death of him.

"Now you listen to me, Emma Swan," he says as he grips her shoulders. "We are not going down without a fight. Neal's sacrifice will not be in vain." A lone tear escapes her eye at the mention of Neal, and Charming just wipes it away and continues. "We are a family that just doesn't know how to give up, right?" He looks to Snow, who nods in confirmation. "We are going to fight and we are going to win. You must have faith." He sees a bit of the life and the fire he loves so much about her come back into her eyes as she nods, and he smiles sadly. "That's my girl." That brings the hint of a smile to her face, and he can't help himself from pulling her into his arms once more. He kisses the top of her head and says, "I love you, Emma." He holds in a breath, but she doesn't even flinch or hesitate as she replies, "I love you, too. Both of you." As he meets Snow's tear-filled gaze over the top of their daughter's head, a smile on her breathtakingly beautiful face, he thinks those words could make him move mountains. And he would, he knows. He'd do anything for his family.


End file.
